Some video games for children contain "ever more graphic, gruesome and grotesque products," according to Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman. He pointed to two games in particular, "Postal" and "Carmageddon," where to goal is to kill innocent people.

"This is sick stuff," Lieberman said, "and sadly it sells." "Postal" was the third top-selling action game in October. Lieberman also complained that many questionable games are marketed to children, and are available on the Internet for free to anybody who downloads them.

At a press conference marking the third annual video game report card, Lieberman said there is some good news. The National Institute on Media and the Family found, in their survey of games on the market, that virtually every new game contains a rating that parents can refer to when picking out games for their children, and that "the lion's share of new games coming on the market contain little if any violence."

Game industry representative Doug Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software Association, said "parents need to exercise control over what their kids are doing on the Internet, just as they need to exercise control over the games their children play, and how much time they spend playing those games."

Lieberman called the questionable games "digital poison," and encouraged parents to take an active role in monitoring what their children play and to ask game makers to set standards and limit the violence in the games that they market.

Lieberman and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) have been active in trying to protect children from gratuitously violent or sexually explicit content in video games. Their actions persuaded the industry to voluntarily establish a rating system for games, as well as providing an annual report card survey of the available games on the market.